Wednesday, November 30, 2016

Cerrillos was released in April 2014 by NYC-based indie polish maker Cirque Colors as part of the Heritage collection. Officially described as a turquoise, I think the color is actually closer to a Bondi blue, a medium-toned variation of cyan with a lucidity and depth reminiscent of tropical waters. Abundant finely-milled holographic pigment gives it a silky sheen and creates subtle dimensionalizing hues of cerulean, magic mint and misty celeste in ambient light. We have overcast skies here today, but I imagine direct sun would generate a beautiful analogously-hued prismatic display with shimmering arcs in blues, greens and gold. Application was a pleasure -- I love working with Annie's creations, scented as they are with lavender and clary sage essential oils, smells so nice! The consistency of Cerrillos is fluid, light and smooth with a thin-to-medium viscosity and an easy, fluent, self-leveling slip over the nail. It's an easy-to-control formula that gives you plenty of time to finesse the application before beginning to set up. Pigmentation is sheerish on the first coat, but builds surprisingly quickly to evenly opaque coverage with the second. Cleanup is easy. Cerrillos dries naturally in very good time to beautiful shiny finish. Topcoat does not appear to affect the holographic properties in any way. Photos show two coats of Cerrillos over treatment and basecoat with a topcoat of Seche Vite.

Cirque Cerrillos

Cirque Cerrillos

Cirque Cerrillos

Cirque Cerrillos

Cirque Cerrillos

Cirque Cerrillos

Cirque Cerrillos

Cirque Cerrillos

Cirque Cerrillos

Cirque Cerrillos

There's a touch more green to this color in person than what you see in my pics. It gives the polish more substance, I think, and a bolder, dressier presence than you might expect. It feels absolutely wonderful on the nail -- fresh, clean, sleek and very high-end! Fabulous! xo,Liz

Tuesday, November 29, 2016

Cherry Best Friends was released earlier this month by Australian indie polish maker Grace-full Nail Polish as part of the Christmas Memories collection. It has a medium-toned cerise-leaning crimson base bearing superabundant fine gold shimmers, which transform the color to a beautiful bold pigment red and give it an exceptionally luminous, gleaming semi-metallic appearance with a fiery flash. Finely-milled holographic pigment adds to the luminous quality and dimensionalizes the look with a subtle violet arc in direct light.

Application was fantastic. The consistency of Cherry Best Friends is fluid, light and very smooth with a thin-to-medium viscosity and a silky, self-leveling slip over the nail. It's one of those polishes that goes on so effortlessly that you feel like you can almost "think" it on, you know what I mean? Excellent pigmentation contributes to that effect -- it is completely and evenly opaque in just one coat! I used two for this manicure, but beyond adding a slightly greater sense of density to the color (which may well have been all in my mind), it made no difference to the look of the polish. Cleanup is tetchy, there's some pigment travel as you might expect from a lacquer so profoundly pigmented and a bit of trace staining as well. But given how beautifully it applies, a clean manicure is absolutely within the realm of possibility. Cherry Best Friends dries naturally in very good time to a smooth, shiny finish. Photos show two coats of Cherry Best Friends over treatment and basecoat with a topcoat of Seche Vite.

Grace-full Nail Polish Cherry Best Friends

Grace-full Nail Polish Cherry Best Friends

Grace-full Nail Polish Cherry Best Friends

Grace-full Nail Polish Cherry Best Friends

Grace-full Nail Polish Cherry Best Friends

Grace-full Nail Polish Cherry Best Friends

Grace-full Nail Polish Cherry Best Friends

Grace-full Nail Polish Cherry Best Friends

Grace-full Nail Polish Cherry Best Friends

Grace-full Nail Polish Cherry Best Friends

Grace-full Nail Polish Cherry Best Friends

Cherry Best Friends is actually even warmer and brighter in person. This baby just glows! It reminds me of bright red gift wrap ribbon --
you really couldn't ask for a more vivid, radiant look for a
Christmas red!All of the polishes that I purchased from the Christmas Memories collection have been wonderful, I've enjoyed each and every one. My favorite is Pavlova Roll for it's traveling embery glow and deep gorgeous red-violet color, but they are all great and perfectly formulated too. I love the thin-to-medium viscosity of Theresa's formulas, so eminently paintable, and Grace-full's sleek, compact, flattened-style brush is among my absolute favorites for its precision application. love,Liz

Monday, November 28, 2016

Like Butterfly Nebula, Ghost of Jupiter was released earlier this month by Indiana-based indie polish maker Different Dimension as part of the Intergalactic collection. It is a full-coverage glitterbomb with bazillions of silver holographic glitters and iridescent red-to-green colorshifting glitters suspended in a clear base, reading mostly as a greyish off-white that shifts to a glowy linen shade at certain angles to the light. It looks the snow of your imagination, fluffy and glistening with opalescent glints of flame, aqua, lavender and spring green. Those iridescent colorshifting glitters are deeply cool -- under incandescent light they completely blanket the look with flame-colored sparks. In direct sun, the polish explodes into a dazzling field of prismatic sparkle.Application was great! The consistency of Ghost of Jupiter is very jelly-like with a thicker viscosity, to which I added a couple of squirts of polish thinner at the outset. Thinned, it had an easily-controlled, fluent, self-leveling spread over the nail with very good glitter payoff that disperses evenly without effort. Coverage is provided by the glitters and three coats will provide wearable opacity on longer nails with a minimum of visible nail line, mostly camouflaged by the bling. I actually think that it is at its most beautiful in one coat, a lovely sheer opalescent falling-snow look. Cleanup is something you'll not want to do a lot of -- those glitters are sticky! Ghost of Jupiter dries naturally in good time to a textured finish that is mostly smoothed by a layer of gel effect topcoat, or you can use two of your favorite quick-dry topcoat. I used a layer of both for a glossy, glitter-under-glass look. Photos show three coats of Ghost of Jupiter over treatment and basecoat with a topcoat of Pretty Serious Plump Up the Volume followed by a topcoat of Seche Vite.

Different Dimension Ghost of Jupiter

Different Dimension Ghost of Jupiter

Different Dimension Ghost of Jupiter

Different Dimension Ghost of Jupiter

Different Dimension Ghost of Jupiter

Different Dimension Ghost of Jupiter

Different Dimension Ghost of Jupiter

Different Dimension Ghost of Jupiter

Different Dimension Ghost of Jupiter

Different Dimension Ghost of Jupiter

My photos make me sad -- no still image can accurately capture the dynamics of this amazing sparkler! The iridescent colorshifting glitters really set this apart from other silvery holographic microglitter bombs. It looks like the sort of polish a snow faerie would wear, and I imagine that it would be spectacular in fire light or by the lights of a Christmas tree. love,Liz

Sunday, November 27, 2016

Berry Christmas was released earlier this month by Texas-based indie polish maker Cupcake Polish as one of four limited edition custom polishes for November 2016 created by Sara exclusively for members of the Hella Holo Customs (HHC) Facebook group. HHC is a private group that solicits
two polish makers for custom polishes every month, which are then
available to HHC members via a special ordering code or link posted within the
group. New members are welcome! If you'd like to join, just send an email to
hellaholocustoms@gmail.com with “join” in the subject line and your
facebook profile name in the message, or click "join" on the group's Facebook page and wait for approval. Easy-peasy lemon squeezey!Officially described as a "dark pink linear holo with gold shimmer," Berry Christmas is a medium-dark rosy cerise pink with aspects of magenta and raspberry, a resonant, cool-leaning lipstick rose sort of hue that's like a cross between hollywood cerise and Mexican pink. Superabundant golden microflake shimmers float within and read in shades ranging from gold to bright pink through the base, giving the polish an exceptionally shimmery appearance and creating a warm semi-metallic underlay of brink pink. Finely-milled holographic pigment creates shifting hues of glowing violet, misty lavender pink and raspberry that nuance the base color in ambient light, and in the sun there's an extra sparkly linear holographic display predominated by bright arcs of violet and red interspersed with mixed prismatic sparks that frames a glistening lick of silvery brink pink and shades to deep raspberry around the edges of the nail.Application was fantastic. The consistency of Berry Christmas is fluid, creamy and dense with a medium viscosity and a lush, buttery glide over the nail that is a pleasure to manipulate with Cupcake's rounded flexible brush. Pigmentation is excellent -- you could wear it at one medium coat if you wanted to, but two is better for full, dense bottle color and maximum holographic effects. Cleanup is easy. Berry Christmas dries naturally in good time to a smooth, slightly flat finish that wants a good topcoat to look its best. Topcoat accentuates the presence and effects of the microflake shimmers but does not interfere with the holographic properties of the polish in any way.Photos show two coats of Berry Christmas over KBShimmer Love You Strong Time treatment and KBShimmer Fillin' Groovy basecoat with a topcoat of Seche Vite.

Cupcake Polish Berry Christmas

Cupcake Polish Berry Christmas

Cupcake Polish Berry Christmas

Cupcake Polish Berry Christmas

Cupcake Polish Berry Christmas

Cupcake Polish Berry Christmas

Cupcake Polish Berry Christmas

Cupcake Polish Berry Christmas

Cupcake Polish Berry Christmas

Cupcake Polish Berry Christmas

Cupcake Polish Berry Christmas

Cupcake Polish Berry Christmas

Cupcake Polish Berry Christmas

Cupcake Polish Berry Christmas

This has a sleek, gleaming presence on the nail with a reflective, almost metallic looking finish in low light and a glowy reddish pink flash that is soooo pretty! It's beautifully put together as you would expect from this brand, with powerful holographic effects that add so much richness and dimensionality to the look in ambient light and of course all of the sparkling prismatic pizazz in the sun. Just a great polish all the way around!

The HHC November 2016 Cupcakes are available until the 30th, so you still have time to pick up Berry Christmas and any or all of the others if you're quick like a bunny! xo,Liz

Saturday, November 26, 2016

Like Family Traditions and Christmas Eve Magic, Pavlova Roll was just released this month by Australian indie polish maker Grace-full Nail Polish as part of the Christmas Memories collection. It is similar to Christmas Eve Magic in construction, only here in a gorgeous deep purpled magenta or red-violet shade, a rich, berried amalgam of red and plum along the lines of Crayola's jazzberry jam. And as if the color wasn't sumptuous enough, the polish is filled with holographic microflakes that glow in analogous hues of pink, rose, plum, magenta and red from within the jelly base in an exquisite smoldering embers kind of effect that travels up and down the nail with the light. Application was a delight. The consistency of Pavlova Roll is fluid, light and smooth with a thin-to-medium viscosity and an easy, fluent, self-leveling slip over the nail. Pigmentation is excellent for a jelly. It's very nearly a one coater, but you'll want two for the added richness and depth to the color and the extra holographic flakies. Cleanup was surprisingly easy, a touch of pigment travel but almost no trace staining. Pavlova Roll dries naturally in very good time to a smooth shiny finish. Photos show two coats of Pavlova Roll over treatment and basecoat with a topcoat of Seche Vite.

Grace-full Nail Polish Pavlova Roll

Grace-full Nail Polish Pavlova Roll

Grace-full Nail Polish Pavlova Roll

Grace-full Nail Polish Pavlova Roll

Grace-full Nail Polish Pavlova Roll

Grace-full Nail Polish Pavlova Roll

Grace-full Nail Polish Pavlova Roll

Grace-full Nail Polish Pavlova Roll

Grace-full Nail Polish Pavlova Roll

Grace-full Nail Polish Pavlova Roll

Grace-full Nail Polish Pavlova Roll

Grace-full Nail Polish Pavlova Roll

Grace-full Nail Polish Pavlova Roll

Grace-full Nail Polish Pavlova Roll

I love jammy, berried red-violet polishes anyway but the smoldering embers effect of those holographic microflakes pushes this right over the top -- the colors they produce just send me! The pigmentation of this polish is perfect, the color is rich and vibrant but still translucent enough to allow the flakies to fire up gloriously in most lights. Under incandescent light, your nails just glow with color! Stunning!love,Liz